I've lifting off and on ever sinse I was big enough to pick up a 10 lb solid bar but I've never stuck with it through thick and thin. My best all time lifts were 320 bench, 450 ish deadlift and probably 380 squats. Right now I'm weigh 195 but should be around 185, maybe even 180.

My year end goals are 300 bench, 400 squat and 500 deadlift...hopefully at 180, although I do love to eat.The 300 bench is well in sight, the 500 deadlift seems attainable. I'm not sure the knee's will hold up for the squats although I'm giving it hell.

Here's my last full workout cycle. I started the deadlift routine that John O advised me to try. The rest is still a basic 5 X 5 built around squats and bench presses.

I have my accessory lift tomorrow (I'm a little sick tonight, so I'm going back to my last workout to post a base routine to start from)

04-30-2009

Close grip bench presses 200 X 7200 X 4200 X 3

Lying extensions60 X 10

Pull upswide grip X 5close grip X 6

Dumbell curls30 X 6 30 X 4

Laterals25 X 8 side25 X 8 rear

The only thing I want to add is a calf day. Just calves nothing else. I work 12 hour shifts so although I try to get through in 8 days, it does vary according my my off days. I also run 2-5 nights a week, always 1 1/2 and usually around 14 minutes. The only supplements I use are protein powders and Baconators from Wendy's.

My goals are as much strengh as I can get with visable abs. I want to enter some powerlifting competitions. I'm a police officer and 37 so keeping within those parameters I could probably be somewhat competitive on a very low level contest.

Any comments or suggestions? I'm open to suggestions from anyone, although any changes will still be around a squat, deadlift and bench routine.

I wouldn't waste your time with a calf-only day, unless you're bodybuilding there's not much need for more than 4-6 sets in a given workout, if that. Plus a day with that much volume will probably impact your recovery for squats and deadlifts. I would just make it a general accessory day - heavy abs, calves, lats/upper back, grip. Stuff that tends to carry over to at least 2 out of the 3 lifts.

Personally, I started using a Westside program after switching over from bodybuilding 8 or so months ago and it's working rather well for me. Might be something to look into.

pullups X 5 means 1 set of 5 reps. Not 5 sets. On my accessory day, I only do 3 sets of close grip, 1 set of skull crushers, 2 sets of pull ups, 2 sets of curls, and 2 sets of laterals. The whole workout takes less than 30 minutes.

Thanks for commenting Zack. What exactly does Westside mean? I've heard the term thrown around for a while and what I've figured out is that it involves a lot of chains, bands, partials?

curls60lbs x 10 reps + a few forced. (1 set but a good pump and fully worked muscle)

Lateral raises and rear laterals (1 set of each)20lbs x 10each side (these are light and mostly to keep my shoulder's together)

I did calves earlier today. I set each leg, standing one leg calf raises, added some forced reps at the end. This is based off the calf thread on here. Trying to work into it, I can't get too sore because I walk a lot on my job, and climb a lot of steps so an extremely sore day would be hell.

300 x 3/4 rep (sharp shooting pain in my back) I think I rounded my back because I lifted conventional and didn't get my butt low enough. It doesn't feel too bad right now but I guess I'll back the weights down my next deadlift day and start a new cycle over.

That was the first time in recent histoy I hit 400 too. It may be my lifting style but I've never had problems locking a weight out. All my problems come at the bottom of the lift. If it gets anywhere near my knees, it's going up.

I also did the one leg calf raises again. I set each leg, cheats with a few negatives at the end. Hopefully they won't get as sore as they did last time I did these sinse I have a PT test at work tomorrow.

I haven't updated for a while after my back was tweaked. I did my regular bench and squat workouts, only with lighter weights and after taking a week for the back to heal.

Tonight I started pulling deadlifts and got up to 320 and realized that I had gotten stronger after taking some time off. I pulled one set of 370lbs x 1 rep then put 420 and pulled it somewhat easy for a good solid rep. I probably did around 6-7 sets, starting at 150 and maxing at 420. I actually put 450 on the bar and almost got it up to my knee's before deciding that it wasn't worth risking injury again so I dropped it.I then did three sets of shrugs off a power rack- I believe 220lbs for 10-12reps, two sets of pulldowns to failure at 10-12 reps, two sets of (I believe they're called) hypers with bodyweight and stopped a few reps short of failure. I probably got around 15-18 reps of these. I then did 2 sets of sit ups with your feet straight up in the air (I'm not sure of that machine either).

I can workout in a fully stocked gym for free here on campus, completely by myself if I just grab the key. It's just a matter of changing, working out, getting cleaned up again and going back to work that sucks. They left the radio on but it was some oldies crap so that didn't help much. All the cool machines may make it worthwhile though. At the house all I have is a bench, power rack, pulldown station, pullup station, 400ish pounds of weights, 6 adjustable dumbells and about 200 lbs of weight for those.

150lbs x 10 reps220lbs x 1 rep240lbs x 1 rep290lbs x 7/8th of a rep. I lost it at lock out?? I noticed my ass was coming off the bench even though I used the set up recommended on here. I'm going to re-evaluate my set up to keep that from happening.

Tomorrow will be deep squats... These could have embarrasing low numbers. I'm starting my squat program from scratch using ass to calves lifts.

I'm actually getting to the point that I LOVE DEADLIFT DAY? It's a good feeling to pull weights that others that consider themselves stronger and younger can't even budge off the ground.

Today I did a new exercise that I invented. It's called "digging a fucking pond to keep the wife happy and putting out" I did an estimated 10,000 reps with a pick and probably 5,000 shovel throws of dirt. Believe it or not that's about the best cardio I've done in a long time...

Squats tonight...maybe. Weight still 195ish even though I've added muscle and it's a more proportioned 195. I was wanting to get down to 181 but I may be better off eating more, adding strength and getting 198. I can't diet and cardio AND gain strength. So of those three I'll take the strength.

Thats it I completely changed my lifting style on squats and am just getting the basics down. Even that though I feel it way more in my quads than my normal wide to parallel (or so) squatting style. I'm going to really push the squats until I can get in the mid-350's. It kinda sucks I pull 420 and am actually sucking air from two sets of squats 1/2 that weight.

I've also stuck with the calves one leg long set to failure sets and it's really working. This is the biggest my calves have been. I'll start getting some pictures on once I clean the living room.

My squats are a work in progress. I still have to fight to keep my knee's tight cause I've always squatted sumo. I can feel the "bounce" at the bottom and my knee's actually feel better than going parallel. Of course, my knee's are wrapped so tight I couldn't feel my toes. I like the way Kaz squatted and am using that as my model.

All with no straps or chalk. I'll post a couple pictures of my last two lifts on here in just a few. The first one looked like I didn't lock out so I had my wife take another one more from the side. I haven't saw them large scale myself so I'm not sure how they'll turn out.

Also, I wasn't at the gym so I only had 395lbs for an olympic bar SO I attached a 7 1/2 lb plate to either side to get the 425. I can see 500 coming soon on these. If only my squats were as good.